Bill O’Reilly scorns black femininity publicly, only to turn right around and pursue black pussy privately.

In a pattern that was set in motion before and during the 19th-century antebellum period, white men of diverse backgrounds — rich and poor, powerful and exploited — were in a peculiar position of being obligated to disparage black femininity publicly, in polite society, while engaging in illicit sexual relationships with these same women — protected by the minutiae of property rights laws that justified what can only be described as rape — privately.

White men, understanding themselves as members of a racially superior group, were obligated, by social custom, to conform to a strict system of social interaction and etiquette between master and slave, black and white.

They were obligated to sing the praises of white femininity which, we know, on the surface, was placed on a pedestal. It was the “norm,” the “ideal” that emerged from and confirmed an ideal, race culture. Though emulated, it could never be approximated, least of all by black women. Or so went the reasoning of white ethnocentrism.

Black women belonged to black culture; and, though the wellspring of Black feminine existence, in the eyes of white America, black culture — savage and barbaric — was depraved.

This was all a facade, of course. For as much as white men may have boasted about white femininity, the so-called inferior nature of black culture, and substandard status of black womanhood, they still pursued, during this period and onward, sexual relationships with black women.

If you need a contemporary example of this, look no further than news host Bill O’Reilly, the latest in a long line of white men who insult black culture, moralize about it, to white America’s face, but attempt to sample it behind closed doors.

Fortunately, this time, chickens came home to roost, and their roosting took the form of his employer, Fox News, opting to end its relationship with O’Reilly.

That’s right. Bill O’Reilly, Fox’s former chief advocate of respectability politics and enthusiast of the theory of black cultural pathology, who held a coveted, decades-long slot at the often off-the-mark and always inflammatory media organization, was fired. Fired.

Why? Over a tale as old as time — sexual misconduct. Within recent weeks, several women have come forward with stories alleging that O’Reilly committed sexual improprieties against them. But, here’s the interesting bit: One of the women who told her story — surprise, surprise –, it turns out, was black. That’s right. Black. Her name is Perquita Burgess.

Even more alarming is how O’Reilly, who worked with his accuser at another media network before he joined Fox, solicited Ms. Burgess.

According to the woman’s attorney, Lisa Bloom, O’Reilly called her “hot chocolate. That’s right. “Hot chocolate.”

So, Bill O’Reilly, who was in the habit of scorning black women and repugning black culture on the air every chance he got, harping on its lack of moral heft, nonconsensually oggled this accuser, a black woman who belongs to a congenitally backward culture. Apparently, his sexual attraction to her obscured all the other horrible stuff about blackness.

Right about now I surmise that you probably have a pretty good sense of where I’m going with this.

He, Bill O’Reilly, someone whom you only fathomed as incapable of uttering the words “black” and “women” if the two categories didn’t reify the language of welfare queens — who masterfully mooch off hard-working (white) Americans and rich people — and uncontrollable, sexual promiscuity, is comfortable with black feminine sexuality when it serves him, when he’s looking to fulfill his sweet tooth for “hot chocolate.”

He, Bill O’Reilly, someone who spent his entire tenure at Fox dangerously ill-informed about black society, who chronically skewed data, who downplayed institutional and systemic racism and condemned the “deficits” of black culture, was empathetic enough with the plight of, and comfortable enough with the culture of, black America to direct unwanted “compliments” at a black woman, who was clearly disinterested in old white men.

He, Bill O’Reilly, who once, in characteristic fashion, described Beyonce as “raunchy” and said the rhythm and blues singer is a detriment to the African American community because her music encourages black and poor girls to get pregnant, didn’t mind, one bit, aiming his “raunchy” thoughts at a black woman, even though doing so was inappropriate and she expressed no desire for them.

Much like his antebellum white ancestors, bound by the same racist logic and same racial order demanded by white supremacy, that oversexualizes black bodies, Bill O’Reilly scorns black femininity publicly, only to turn right around and pursue black pussy privately.

I suppose this is the “respectable,” i.e. disingenuous and reprehensible thing to do — ripping apart the souls of black folks before millions of viewers every night while deviating from the very moral standards — the ability to tame your sexual desires, for example — you claim black people lack and that every race of human in America must hold to succeed as a group.

Given the recent accusations leveled at O’Reilly, his very presence at Fox over the years, as well the continued presence of other while moral monsters in our national media, clearly disprove that theory.

Bill O’Reilly is no longer employed at Fox. That’s a good thing. Granted, he’s still rich and Fox the media infrastructure and news conglomerate still exists. But, he’s gone.

Still, handing one problematic news host his pink slip ultimately means nothing when your plan is to rotate into that slot someone with viewpoints comparable to O’Reilly.

Ms. Burgess’s testimony alone against O’Reilly’s sexual misdeeds, and the hypocrisy it exposed within his thinking about race and ethics of human life in our country, likely did not nudge Fox into making its decision.

But, it does add further weight, as if there weren’t plenty of it already, to the belief that the myth of black cultural pathology is not and has never been about the safety and security of America’s moral fabric, but protecting, by any means necessary — even the willful propagation of lies and stereotypes about a group of people — the social and sexual dominance of America’s white population.

Antwan is an educator, cultural critic, actor, and writer for Wear Your Voice Mag (WYV), where he focuses on the dynamics of class, race, gender, politics, and pop culture. Prior to joining the team at WYV, he was an adjunct professor in the African American Studies Department at Valdosta State University in southern Georgia, where he taught African American Literature. He has traveled the U.S. and U.K. showcasing a fifty-five minute, one-person play titled Whitewash, which focuses on the state of black men in the post-civil rights era. Antwan received his B.A. in English and Literature from California State University, Dominguez Hills, and M.A. in African American Studies from University of California, Los Angeles. He is a Ronald E. McNair Scholar and NAACP theater nominee.